GeneralDisorder

Not in a subaru, but I fixed a car that had the wrong Voltage Regulator installed. Worked fine, but drained the battery fast. To check if it's the battery, or wireing, check for continuity between the positive battery terminal, and ground. If there isn't, or not very much, then try a new battery. Otherwise - start pulling fuses as sugested to find the offending circuit GD

There was a post a while back where a guy mentioned a 280z alt. Haven't had time to look at one, but it seemed at the time to be a very intentional comment, with an exact model of car..... worth a look next time your at a yard. GD

Most people seem to agree that there isn't much to be had from changing to the 5 speed for off-roading. Since your in mostly 1st or 2nd out there. For freeway there is definately an advantage, as you can get better acceleration. GD

The 2WD 5 spd tunnel Miles is refering to is a LOT smaller than the tunnel in the automatic 4WD you'll be working with. The 5 speed will be a much easier fit in the auto. I have looked at both tunnels many times. My tunnel required beating, and some washers as Miles said - but it went together, so there's no reason why the auto, with it's bigger tunnel, couldn't accomidate the 4 spd, or even the 5 spd. John will sort all that out I'm sure. And I think that as long as he doesn't run it up over 6k RPM's (holy s#@t!!!??!!) all the time, the engine will be just fine. I think that's why Subaru didn't put this engine in front of a manual to begin with - they didn't want people blowing them like that. GD

Just some info for " Do It Sidewayz" - the japanese market had 1.0 Justy's. (998 cc I think). I know nothing about any of the cars, but have you had a suzuki torn down? Or a Geo? Not that I doubt you, but displacement, and stamped logo's are no guarantee that the engine wasn't designed by someone else. I sure would like to know for sure if the engines are the same - would be a nice bit of knowledge to have if I ever decide to build a justy.... GD

Replacement with standard shocks and struts seems to be the order of the day. The parts to repair the air-ride systems are really expensive new, and most of the used stuff has the same problem - doesn't work. I'm sure you can fix it, but Subaru will probably want a kidney for the parts. Brand new lifetime warrantee name brand (KYB for instance) shocks and struts can be had for $150 or less for all 4 corners... GD

Yeah - I've seen Miles car in person - it *was* a rust bucket by west coast standards. But we have some nasty cars up here too. Flowmasters Brat has more rust than the trashwagon, but it was from one of our coastal towns. If you really love soobs, WA is the place to be really. I see more EA81's when I go across the border in one day than I see in a month here in OR. Kinda werid, since it's only about 150 miles difference. GD

Awsome - I knew those tires would work out. Did you stick with 27 for all your runs? GD

Actually - I was once told by a friend of mine who was a subaru dealership mechanic for something like 20 years that the cars were designed to go 50,000 miles. I think that their reliability has a lot to do with the culture of the Japanse after WWII. In their culture, their job was extremely important, and I think to some degree, if a part failed early or often, it was looked upon as a personal failure on the part of the designer. Over hear, we set a spec for some part, and then we will add 10% more strength to it, to account for any inaccuracies we may have in our calculations. If I were an engineer then, at that time, I would add 50% to make sure my reputaion wasn't harmed. GD

does that go for all years? Cause I have one I pulled from an 80 wagon, and it has a switch that says "Passing Lamp" on it. So on the original car, if I hit that switch with the high beams off.... nothing would happen? Just curious, cause I was thinking that if it was truly meant to be used for passing, wouldn't it be dangerous to use the high beams when passing - simply so you could use the passing lamp? GD

Yeah - we told him. He emailed me and thanked me - said he didn't know that much about them, and was going from what his son told him. He sounded quite honest really. last year for Brats was: US: 87 Aus: 92 NZ, and Isreal: 94 That's the countries I know about anyway. I'm sure there are plenty more with other numbers. It does seem that the final year of production anywhere (at least so far as I know) was 94. GD

This all depends on *which* 4 speed you use - there were two, not sure on the years exaclty, but I'm pretty sure that 83+ was the lower 3rd and 4th gears. Junkie - that's why your revs are so high in 4th - you have a pre-83 4 speed. The 83 and up 4 speeds are higher geared in 3rd and 4th. For example - my wagon (pre 83 4 speed) runs 75 MPH at 4,000 RPM in 4th. But my Brat (85) runs at 75 MPH at 3,000 RPM in 4th. Both EA81's with the 4 speed D/R. GD

Problem with the Justy's are the engines are crap. Friend of mine had an 85 wagon and a 91 Justy - both brand new when he bought them. The 85 wagon had 330k when he decided it was tired, and sold it. The Justy had 120k when the engine blew up. He's very regular on the maintenence, and the Justy was his wifes car - driven very carfully. She loved the car, and wanted it rebuilt. He approached Mountain Tech about that issue, and they initially quoted him like $2,000 to $3,000 to rebuild the engine, etc. He said fine - do it. They changed their mind tho, and finally refused to rebuild it. They claimed it wasn't worth it. Guess money doesn't talk up there. Justys are cool - maybe for a rally car. I've always wanted to build one up. Problem is there's no lift kits, so it aint gonna go where a lifted Brat will, and engine reliability is questionable. GD

Rather have a justy than a Brat? shame on you. For one, you could sell the Brat and buy 12 Justy's with the money. Course - that would be throwing away money....haha GD

Replace your oil pump - the MMO will help as Turbone sugested, but for most people it seems to be temporary. A lot of people have replaced their oil pump, and had the ticking go away for good. With enough pressure, your valves should stop complaining. $60 or $70 for a new pump and seals sounds a lot better than a new engine. And if it does turn out to be that the engine is lunch, then you'll have a new pump for your next used engine. GD

Yeah - dump that ECVT - you'll be sorry if you don't. If the engine is shot, chances are good that the tranny is shot, or going to be soon. I think those trannys go for like $2000 these days. Incredibbly silly. Put in a manual. GD

I completely dissagree with benebob - do it, you'll be glad you did. And damn the collector value. If I were a collector, I would rather see it with the manual anyway - much cooler, and more desireable. Also - it won't be a complete "dog" It's a 240 HP N/A engine, and the VW community uses them all the time to upgrade vanagons etc. It will be plenty fast - faster than the Auto - partly cause you have lost about 200 Lbs of weight. I wouldn't even drive one without the manual conversion. GD

If your in a position such that you cannot see the front turn signal, you will be able to see the rear one.... unless antother car is blocking it. They wrap around for exactly that reason I assume. I would leave it alone personally - mucking with the wireing unless you have a good reason can turn your car into what my Brat was when I got it. The ignition switch no longer ran the starter - there was a pushbutton instead, the right turn signal didn't work - but the clock flashed, the left front marker light didn't work at all, and the right marker light flashed with the right turn signal. Someone needs to have their head examined for what they did to the wiring on my poor Brat. It was all badly done to boot - wires twisted together by hand, and left completely bare just hanging there. No butt connectors or electrical tape or shrink tube - just nothing! BIG fire hazard. GD

They don't use salt around here because of the lack of it - they use chemicals, and sand or gravel mostly cause we have lots of that. I've heard that most of the road salt comes from the great lakes, so it's readily availible out there, but since there's no large bodies of salt water around here, we just can't supply it. GD

There's definate lagal issues with that - it's absurd. But unfortunately, they are probably in some other country.... someone want to do a traceroute on their IP? But why don't we just sign up for their board, and flood it with useless, horrible posts about how they stole our posts? With links in every post to the real board? GD

non-inductive must be connected in parralel with the plug wire - ie: you have to disconnect the plug wire, and insert the lead for the light into the circuit. Inductive does not require a direct connection in the circuit - it has circuitry to "sense" the surrounding magnetic field of the plug wire when the plug fires. GD

EZap and I both tried to check into those "lift kits" in Seattle, and the guy doesn't seem to be legit - at least not yet. They aren't availible, and I repeatedly asked for an approximate date, and pricing info, but never got anything - only "soon" and that they would have a price list "soon". Could be a hoax, or maybe they just aren't ready. GD

The EA81T is NOT SPFI, it's MPFI - that's why the heads are soooo sought after, because they have injector bosses for each cylinder..... No EA81 of ANY flavor ever came with SPFI..... that includes all Brats. Although the SPFI from an EA82 will bolt up and work with some slight distributor modifications. Also - Brat beds are the same from 82 to 87, nothing specific about the 86 model year. GD

the disty shaft turns when the car is running, and will stop in no particular position when turned off. Adjusting that gap must be done with the disty removed from the engine. Get a manual to show you how. You shouldn't have to adjust that gap, but if you do, it can only be done off the car cause you need to be able to rotate the shaft. The ND distys have a tendancy to be more affected by shaft wear than the hitachi's. They both suffer shaft wear at seemingly the same rate, but the Hitachi units will go longer (much longer) before any effect of that wear is noticed. I have seen Hitachi's with three times as much shaft wear as a ND that had stopped working because of it, and they were working just fine. It's just an interesting thing I have noticed. You want an inductive timing light - it's just how the light hooks up to the car, and induction is easier to use. Cheap timing light works fine for me, these cars aren't rocket science, so they don't need anything fancy. GD

for the electric choke - just look. And take a multimeter to the lead. Should pull off in the first 5 minutes or so if the temp outside is around 70. You don't need a fuel regulator. The Weber runs best at 4 psi, which is actually more than our EA81 fuel pumps generally provide at the age they are. Most places reccomend a Carter 4070 I think for the webers. I am probably going to get one eventually (about $80). They are high-volume 4 psi pumps. I think my car is giving me about 1.5 psi right now, and you can tell it's not enough.